Dyeing and similar liquid treatment of textile fibres



J. WALSH Aug. 10, 1965 3,199,317 DYEING- AND SIMILAR LIQUID TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FIBRES Filed Sept. 15. 1962 4 Sheets-Sheet l l l I I I.lll HHHHHI HHI IIIIllll ui ATTok/VfY Aug. 10, 1965 J. WALSH 3,199,317

DYE JING AND SIMILAR LIQUID TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FIBRES Filed Sept. 13, 3.962 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 l/VVE/V TOP BY 0 i2 Walsh 2 7 ATTO/P/VfY 3,199,317 DYEING AND SIMILAR LIQUID TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FIBRES Filed Sept. 13, ,1962

J. WALSH Aug. 10, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 1 l I l l I! l/VVE/VTO Jakfz Walsh ATTO/FWEYS Aug. 10, 1965 J. WALSH 3,199,317

DYEING AND SIMILAR LIQUID TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FIBRES Filed Sept. 13, 1962 4 sheets-sheet 4 Y INVENTOI? ATTORNEYS United States Patent 0 3,19%,317 DYEING AND Sri'lfiLAi'i'. LHQ UKD TREA'E'MENT @F TEXTELE John Walsh, Rochdaie, England, assignor to F. Smith 8: Co. (Whitworth) Limited, a company of the United Kingdom Filed Se, t. 13, M62, Ser. No. 223,356 Claims priority, application Great Britain, ept. 22 19131, 33,949/61 9 Qiaims. ('Ci. ES-22) This invention relates to the dyeing and other liquid treatment (e.g. bleaching, impregnating and the like) of textile materials, paper and similar fibrous materials. It will be described as applied to dyeing processes for textiles, its uses for other liquid treatment processes being substantially identical, applicable to the treatment of loose fibres, woven fabrics, yarns and other textiles as well as for example continuous webs of paper and the like.

It is known to dye loose textile fibers when in the form of slivers, fleeces and the like, and the normal practice hitherto has been to run the sliver or fleece one or more times through a dye bath and then to pass it between the rollers of a padding mangle or the like. Hitherto the said mangle has had the roller nip located at a distance from the dye bath and any excess dye liquor expressed from the fibers by the rollers has run back freely into the bath.

Various forms of machinery for carrying out this known process have been proposed but many of them are complicated and expensive. Furthermore, in all of them, because of the expressed liquor being left free to run back into the bath the liquor in the bath is adversely affected since any fluii or impurities washed off the material by the expressed liquor is carried into the bath with the excess liquor and eventually the bath may become so polluted as to be unusable.

It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved means for the dyeing and similar liquid treatment of continuously fed textiles such as loose fibers in sliver or fleece form, or fabrics in the piece or paper webs which is free from all the drawbacks of the hitherto known machinery, in particular in that the treatment liquor through which the on-coining material passes does not become loaded with impurities but is maintained at a constant purity and, furthermore, in that the mechanical apparatus required for carrying out the process is not unduly expensive nor difficult to control.

The present invention is especially useful with those forms of liquor treatment in which the liquor used contains additives which give it very high wetting-out properties. Because of an exceedingly rapid rate of adsorption of the supplemented liquor into the textile materials, the length of time during which the materials need to be immersed in the liquor is reduced to a minimum and therefore a mere shallow pool of liquor is sufficient to give the desired impregnation. It is possible also to pass the materials immediately from the liquor to the nip of the padding mangle without necessitating any run in air to allow impregnation time.

Accordingly this invention proposes that the fibers, fabrics or other materials to be treated be caused to travel on a concave supporting belt so as to be carried through a quantity of liquor held at a controlled level in the concavity of such belt, and the said belt with the materials thereon is then caused to pass through the nip of a padding mangle almost immediately after leaving the liquor. The system is such that the actual volume of liquor held in the said concavity need be very little larger than the volume of material which at any time is immersed in the liquor and, furthermore, the point of emergence of the material from the liquor is so close to the nip between hid the padding rollers (one of which supports and drives the belt) that any expressed liquor tending to run back into the concavity is taken forward again towards the roller nip by the constantly advancing material and thereby the purity of the bath is self regulated, the accumulation of deposits within the bath being prevented.

After passing through the roller nip the treated ma terial may be taken ed the belt immediately, in which case the belt may return around the lower roller towards the feeding-in point for the material. However, according to a further feature of the improved system the said endless belt, after passing through the roller nip with the treated materials, continues forward to carry the materials to or even through a subsequent treatment process, for example a steaming or drying process, the belt in this case returning to the said feeding-in point after it has carried the materials forward so far as may be desired. This feature of the invention is especially useful in the treatment of textile fabrics and paper webs (cg. wallpaper).

An apparatus for carrying out the invention comprises an endless belt travelling around supporting rollers and having its upper run constrained to move through an upwardly-concave arc for at least a part of its length, a nip roller immediately ahead of said concave arc and co-operating with the belt where it rests on a supporting roller, means for supplying dye liquor (or other treatment liquors) into the concavity or pool formed by the belt when passing through said arc, side walls for retaining the pool on the belt, and means for controlling the level of liquid in such pool. The materials are fed to the belt behind said pool from any conventional feeding mechanism, and travel forwards with the belt through the said concave path Where they become immersed in said shallow pool of liquor, and they and the belt then pass almost immediately mangle.

Suitable means is provided, at the sides of the belt to constitute sides walls of the said pool and there will be a convenient seal or packing device between the bottom edge of such side walls and the belt moving below them. Also there may be means for varying the distance between such side walls according to the width of the materials being treated.

If desired a concave support for the concave portion of the belt may be provided but normally this will not be called for as the natural tendency of the belt to straighten out under the pull of the driving roller will keep it close up against the convex lower edges of the said side wall.

The supply means for feeding liquor to the concavity of the belt may be for example a perforated pipe lying above and transversely of the belt, the perforations being at the lowest part of the pipe and being so spaced and dimensioned in relation to the liquor supply that a liquor stream of uniform density at all points is ejected from the perforations into the pool, at a rate dependent upon the rate of take-up by the materials being treated. There may be an electronic or other control means of any known type, for varying the rate of feed of the liquid if the level in the pool rises or falls from a predetermined constant. By this means the purity of the bath of dye or other liquor bath is self regulating and is automatically retained at a useful degree, because the sweeping movement of the materials through the pool causes them to take with them any fluff or impurity which may have run back after having been expressed by the mangle nip.

The apparatus may include means for varying the speed of the belt so as to vary the rate of traverse of the materials through the bath; it may also, or alternatively, include means for varying the concavity of the belt so as to vary the depth of shallowness of the pool of dye liquor, and there may he means for varying the desired between the nip of the padding 2D constant height of liquor in the pool in dependence on the thickness of the slivers or fleece or other material being treated.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Y

FIG. 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a machine adapted primarily for the treatment of loose textile fibres;

FIG. 2 is a plan of the same machine; and

FIG. 3 is a transverse section on the line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view illustrating a modified form of the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammaticside view of a machine for treating textile fabrics, webs of paper and the like and .showing also the additional feature of passing the endless band and the material through a subsequent treatment process.

FIG. 6 is a View in side or end elevation of the doctor 4 blade with parts thereof in section, the line of section being shown at 66 on FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 77 of FIG. '6 showing the adjusting means for the blade.

Referring first to FIGS. l-3, the machine comprises a fabricated frame having upper side rails 1 on upright supports 2, these last being braced together longitudinally by beams 3 and the two side frames being braced together by upper and lower transverse members 4 and 5. Mounted in vertical guides 6 carried by the frame 1 are upper and lower bearings 7 and 8 for a pair'of nip rollers 9 and 10, the lower roller 10 being driven by a belt 11 .from a variable gear 12 and electric motor 13.

Mounted in other bearings (not shown) at the opposite end of the frame 1 is a non-driven trailing roller 14, and there is provided an endless belt of rubber or the like 15 looped around the rollers 10 and 14, but of sulficient length to assume a concave are at the zone 16, being constrained to that arcuate formation by a supporting roller 17 and by the convex lower edges 13 of vertical side walls 19.

These side walls 19 are adjustably mounted on a transverse beam 19a so as to be movable across the machine and thereby vary the width x (FIG; 3) between them, according to the width 'of the materials to be treated. The forward ends of the side walls 19 have extensions (FIG. 4) 20 which lead up to the roller 10, there being sufficient space between the extremity of the part 20 and the surface of the, roller 10 for the belt 15 to pass between. Any suitable means may, of course, be.'provided for mounting the side walls 19 for adjustment relative to one another to vary the width x of the space therebetween. One such suitable means is illustrated and shown most clearly in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings. As shown the spaced transverse beams 19a have, in each, the two relatively long longitudinally extending or directed aligned slots 119. These slots 119 overlie the side walls 19 and each of the side walls has secured thereto the lower ends of upwardly projecting pins or bolts 120. There are two such pins or. bolts secured to the top of each wall 19 and these pins or bolts extend upwardly through overlying slots 119 as shown and are threaded at their top ends or otherwise suitably formed to have adjustably secured thereon a tightening or locking means such as a nut 121, these nuts here being shown as winged nuts.

' The upper roller 9 is provided with a rotatable stripper or doctor blade 21, in known manner, this being carried in bearings 22 in the said guides 6, and the belt 15 is provided with a doctor blade 23 to assist in stripping the treated materials from the belt 6. This doctor blade 23 is adjustable by a screw-and-nut mechanism 24.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate the screw-and-nut' adjusting mechanism generally designated 24. The numeral 24a designates a pivot trunnion carried by the doctor blade, one at each end of the blade and which trunnion is pivotally mounted in a suitable manner upon the adjacent frame structure. An adjustment screw 124 carried by 4, the end of the blade is engageable at its top end with a fixed member 125 which may be carried by the adjacent rail of the frame as shown in FIG. 7 whereby vertical adjustment of the screw will elfect turning of the doctor blade to position the edge of theblade against the belt 6. Lying across the space between the sidewalls 19 is an inlet pipe 25, supplied from any suitable source (not shown) and this pipe has perforations 25a in its lower part, forming so many outlets or nozzles to deliver the liquor to the concavity 16 of the belt, thus producing a pool 26. Suitable control means of any known kind may be provided for maintaining the level of this pool at a constant, namely by increasing the rate of flow of the liquor from the pipe 25 if the level of the liquor falls, and decreasing the rate 'offlow if the level rises from the desired constant. r A suitable control means for maintaining the level of the pool constant would, for example, be such as that illustrated in Patent 2,990,482, issued lune 27, 1961, to M. Kenny, comprising two'liquid level sensors 'S-1 and 3-2, each of which is sensitive to the presence or absence of liquid and is or may be suspended by means of cables C-1 and C-2 in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4, which cables lead to suitable indicators or/ and relays for control purposes for controlling the rate of flow of the liquor from the pipe 25. e I In the example so far described the machine -is adapted for the treatment of loose textile fibres in the form of a fleece or batt 27. These fibres are delivered to the machine from an endless conveyor belt 28 to which they have been delivered uniformly, as to their thickness and as to their rate of movement, froman automatic hopper feed, or Garnett or other known fleece-forming apparatus. The fibres fall from the belt 28 on to the belt 15 as as continuous fleece and are then carried forward by the belt 15 to and through the pool 26 where they become dyed. The dye used will normally have an additive which gives it a very high degree of wetting-out property, so that only a very short interval of time is required for the fibres to be in the pool 26 in order to become fully impregnated with the dye. As the fleece leaves the pool 26 it is taken almost immediately through the nip between the rollers 9 and '10 where surplus liquor is expressed and his then separated from the band 15 in the region of the doctor plate 23 so as to be led away toany desired receiver, the band 15 returning to the trailing roller 14.

The lower edges 18 of the side walls 19 may be surfaced with a suitable sealing material if desired, but,

normally, the resilience of the belt 15 will provide a sulficient sealing effect in itself to prevent the leakage of liquor under the side walls. The tension in the belt 14 due to the driving pull of theroller 1t? tends to straighten out the belt and thereby keeps it closely against the said lower edges 18.

In one proposed arrangement according to the invention, giving an expression on the treated fibres, the rate of take-up of the liquor from the belt, and therefore the rate of supply of liquor to the belt will be about three gallons per minute.

Referring now to FIG. 4,'the concavity in the belt which forms the pool 26 is supported on a wooden or other concave support or shelf 29 which, if necessary, may be resiliently urged towards the lower edges 18 of the side walls 19.

FIG. 5 shows a form of machine suitable for the treatment of textile fabric in the piece .or continuous webs 5 These rollers fore be driven from the same power source or, if driven from different power sources a suitable synchronising mechanism of any known type will be incorporated if necessary.

The left-hand part of FIG. 5 may be used alone for the treatment of textile fabrics or webs of paper, and also the right-hand part of that figure may be incorporated in a machine such as is shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, for passing the liquid treated loose fibres directly into and through a subsequent treatment apparatus.

The means by which the fibres, fabrics or other mate rials to be treated are fed to the machine may take any known form, such means not being a feature of the pres ent invention. Several devices are well known for feeding fabrics and yarns at a controlled rate of advance and similarly, devices are known for feeding loose fibres in a fleece of uniform density at a uniform rate.

What I claim is:

1. Apparatus for dyeing flexible textile material with a liquid dye, said apparatus having a first zone and a sec- 0nd zone below said first zone, a continuous imperforate belt extending through both said zones, means supporting the portion of the belt in the first zone so that the portion extends horizontally, eans for suspending the portion of the belt in the second zone in a concave are so that it forms with parts of the apparatus a means for retaining liquid dye, drive means connected to said belt for moving it in a direction from said first zone towards said second zone, and nip means adjacent said second zone adapted to receive the material from said second zone and force xcess dye therefrom.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the said parts of the apparatus forming the means for retaining liquid dye in said second zone, comprises walls spaced apart transversely of the belt and having lower portions curved to conform to and engaging the said concave arc of the belt.

3. Apparatus for treating flexible material with a liquid comprising spaced substantially parallel roller means, an endless belt impervious to said liquid extending across and supported on said roller means so that a portion of said belt hangs between the roller means forming a concavity, means coacting with said concavity of the belt for retaining a quantity of liquid in a pool in the concavity, liquid supply means above said concavity for delivering liquid into the concavity, means adjacent said belt on one side of said concavity to deliver said material onto said belt to be carried thereby into and through a liquid pool in the concavity, nip means on the other side of said concavity adapted to compress said material and force excess liquid therefrom, drive means connected to said belt for moving it in a direction to convey material thereon through a liquid pool in the concavity and towards said nip means, and means for controlling and maintaining the level of a pool of liquid in the concavity at a substantial elevation below the tops of the belt supporting roller means.

4. Apparatus for treating flexible material with a liquid comprising a frame, spaced rear, forward and central rollers rotatably mounted on said frame so as to rotate on spaced horizontal axes, an endless belt impervious to said liquid entrained around said rear and forward rollers and an upper portion of said belt supported on said central roller, a pair of spaced side walls on said frame having convexly curved bottom edges extending between said central and forward rollers and snugly engaging an upper surface of said portion of said belt so as to form a concave recess therein, a supply means for said liquid above said recess, drive means connected to said forward roller for rotating it about its axis, a nip roller rotatably mounted on a horizontal axis above said forward roller, and conveyor means above said belt adapted to convey said material onto the upper portion of said belt between said rear and central rollers.

5. Apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein said conveyor means includes a second endless belt and means driving said second endless belt at the same linear speed as said first mentioned endless belt.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 4, including means adjustably mounting said side walls on said frame so that the distance between said side Walls may be adjusted to accommodate material of diiierent widths therebetween.

'7. Apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein said supply means includes a horizontal pipe extending laterally across and above said endless belt and said pipe having a row of perforations through the bottom thereof.

8. Apparatus as defined in claim 4, including an arcuate belt support mounted on said frame below said curved bottom edges and the recess in said belt.

9. Apparatus for dyeing flexible textile material with a liquid dye, said apparatus having a continuous imperf0- rate belt, means supporting a portion of the belt, means for suspending said portion of the belt in a concave arc so that it forms with parts of the apparatus a means for retaining the entire liquid dye bath within the concave are portion of the belt, drive means connected to said belt for moving it in one direction with respect to the concave arc portion, and nip means adjacent to the said concave arc portion adapted to receive the material from the concave arc portion and force excess dye therefrom.

References @ited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 330,930 11/85 Sargent 68158 X 395,498 1/89 Lund 68-158 419,331 1/90 Hodgson 8-156 514,743 2/94 Weldon 68-45 X 1,527,369 2/25 Meyer. 1,764,631 6/30 Hubinger 68-44 2,406,109 8/46 Schellenberg 68-45 X 2,724,955 11/55 Spooner 68158 2,739,470 3/56 Carey 68-205 2,810,625 10/57 Brooks 8-456 3,011,328 12/61 Fleissner 68-158 IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner. WALTER A. SCHEEL, Examiner. 

9. APPARATUS FOR DYEING FLEXIBLE TEXTILE MATERIAL WITH A LIQUID DYE, SAID APPARATUS HAVING A CONTINUOUS IMPERFORATE BELT, MEANS SUPPORTING A PORTION OF THE BELT, MEANS FOR SUSPENDING SAID PORTION OF THE BELT IN A CONCAVE ARC SO THAT IT FORMS WITH PARTS OF THE APPARATUS A MEANS FOR RETAINING THE ENTIRE LIQUID DYE BATH WITHIN THE CONCAVE ARC PORTION OF THE BELT, DRIVE MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID 